Desire, Bad-faith and Being-for-other — Existential Thought in American Psycho

Abstract

Existentialism is a prominent intellectual movement that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, profoundly influenced modern and postmodern philosophy. Some of Sartre‘s important ideas on freedom, commitment, responsibility, anxiety, and identity are artistically expressed through his fictional work, inspired countless later writers. Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, initially criticized for its graphic depictions of violence, has proven to hold deeper philosophical significance. The large number of direct and indirect references to the classics of existentialist fiction demonstrates the solid foundation of existentialist thought, delving into the pathology of the postmodern individual, demonstrates the different manifestations of existential crisis in different times. By American Psycho, Ellis intertwined this new expression of existential thought with the social critique advanced. Through Sartre's existentialist ideas, this dissertation examines the novel's satirical depiction of the empty banality of modern consumer culture, disturbing scenes of excessive violence, and the internal logic of the psychology of the characters' behavior. The novel demonstrates the unique development of the existentialist novel, by exploring the existential state of the postmodern subject in the late twentieth century. It also shows the existential crisis in the postmodern society, through the pathological psychology and behavior of the novel's protagonist